December 2004

The world's best-selling astronomy magazine offers you the most exciting, visually stunning, and timely coverage of the heavens above. Each monthly issue includes expert science reporting, vivid color photography, complete sky coverage, spot-on observing tips, informative telescope reviews, and much more! All this in an easy-to-understand, user-friendly style that's perfect for astronomers at any level.

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Features

Killer impact

by
Bill Cooke

If you think NASA has a plan to save Earth in case an asteroid is discovered on a collision course, you’re in for a surprise.

The golden age of star maps

by
Wil Tirion

Today, amateur astronomers use detailed and accurate star maps to locate celestial objects. Four hundred years ago, charts were less accurate, but they were much more beautiful.

Astrology: fact or fiction?

by
Michael E. Bakich

How’s this for a horoscope? This article may cause you to doubt fortune-tellers.

Wander the winter sky

A deep-sky universe of galaxies, nebulae, colorful stars, and beautiful clusters is accessible with a small telescope and this seasonal guide.

Wartime astronomy

by
Matt Quandt

An amateur astronomer in Iraq masters a technique for observing the night sky amid blackouts and bombings.

Polar Moon

by
Robert A. Garfinkle

Scattered across the Moon’s nearside, craters carry names associated with the mid-1800s Franklin expedition, Arctic exploration’s grimmest disaster. Tour these lunar features by telescope.

Drawing the universe

by
Hunter Drohojowska-Philp

Many of us sketch nightly observations in logbooks. One California-based artist uses his sketches as starting points for unique drawings of the cosmos.